Hobbs Column: This is what happens when you procrastinate

Well, here we are, tragically, less than four months before the start of the next football season, and yet the NFL has still
not figured out what to do with Tim Tebow.

Let this be another lesson for what happens when you procrastinate.

This should have been taken care of months ago, but now the Tebow issue is about to become a full-blown crisis.

Elsewhere, the sports world seems to be in working order.

College football’s offseason has turned into a gossipy high school, mostly pitting the “in crowd” — your SEC bullies — against
the rest of the jealous wannabes talking behind their backs.

Fortunately the media has been ever present during this, the alumni-meeting season, to act as go-between tattletale when a
coach gets a little too caught up in the moment and tells his fans what they want to hear.

Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops started it, of course, with snide allegations that the SEC’s near-decade dominance was “propaganda.”

It took two or three nanoseconds for
this to reach the SEC, mostly Nick Saban, who attempted to take the high
road and say
that he had great respect for the Big 12, but really was far too
busy to waste a lot of time trying to decipher Stoops’ remarks.

High school gossip translation: I like Bob Stoops, but only as a “friend.”

It did get a little comical when Kansas coach Charlie Weis agreed with Stoops — Weis, of course, was at Kansas after a year
of somehow coordinating Florida Gator athletes into an unwatchable offense.

But even among the “in crowd” there has been some in-fighting.

In Alabama, they are seriously considering revoking an unwritten state law and henceforth allowing Saban’s name to be mentioned
in the same sentence with Bear Bryant.

But at least two new SEC coaches have
suggested that Saban ain’t all that, and another, Vanderbilt’s James
Franklin, referred
to him as “Nicky Satan.” Coaches are clever like that sometimes.
Florida assistant coach Tim Davis, for instance, called Saban
“the devil himself.”

Maybe this is why LSU likes to keep such a tight reign on Les Miles’ own alumni forays.

At any rate, Saban is able to stand back, take the in-crowd high road, which is to say: Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.

The scene is similar on the golf course, where the simmering Tiger Woods-Sergio Garcia feud is reaching a delightful critical
mass.

There’s more he said/he said going on out on the fairways than in any five episodes of the “The Real Housewives of Orange
County.”

And Tiger can’t take a penalty drop anymore without four million television snoops questioning it.

PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem has to be smiling broadly.

This is all great stuff. Imagine the potential reality TV if they went to friendship counseling.

I also have it on good authority that both the NBA and NHL playoffs are continuing apace and will eventually come to some
sort of mutually agreeable conclusion.

Meanwhile, the NFL falls further and further behind with every day that passes with Tebow still not throwing any passes.

This must be rectified pronto.

Denver used a No. 1 pick to get Tebow — and couldn’t wait to get rid of him as soon as he led the Broncos to the playoffs.

The Jets had a Tebow plan — let him dominate the tabloids, then make sure to set the timer to release him at the exact second
it was legal under NFL bylaws.

Tebow’s own hometown, Jacksonville, supposedly has a team — well, the Jaguars, anyway — with some sort of Blaine Gabbert for
a quarterback. Yet every time Tebow comes home they avoid eye contact even though they can’t give away game tickets.

But somebody has to be the next team to, voilà, claim to have figured out a way to utilize Tebow’s unique skill sets.

It does the NFL no good for Tebow to be fielding giggly offers (sometimes for as much as $75 a game) to play minor league
arena football or maybe to try Canada or perhaps to race an ostrich for charity.

Tebow needs to be in the NFL, especially in the offseason.

During the season, it doesn’t seem quite so important. They have regularly scheduled games then, and Tebow doesn’t seem to
have much effect on them anyway.

Recently, noted talent guru Gil Brandt
finally came to the conclusion that Tebow is not, under any
circumstances, an NFL quarterback.

For him to get another NFL team, Brandt
suggested, Tebow needs to come to grips with that, give up any hope of
being a quarterback,
disavow any knowledge of having ever been a quarterback, perhaps
bring a notarized statement promising to never say the “Q”
word again.

They are missing the point.

It doesn’t really matter if Tebow plays. The New York Jets proved that last season.

Yet they dominated the New York media with a bad team.

The NFL needs Tebow for the headlines, the distractions, the speculation, the rumors and innuendo and teammate tweets.

Don't know the boy. Saw him play last year with Denver. Very exciting. First time I watched a complete game in years. Absent Tebow probably won't watch any more. Guess maybe others with same opinion. Nuff said.

Posted By: Trent On: 5/17/2013

Title: Amen

I am an atheist, but I miss Tebow on the gridiron and I hope he gets a real shot!

Posted By: rmedlin On: 5/17/2013

Title: There is no crisis for Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow knows who is in control of his future. The Jets decision not to play Tim Tebow was insane. And, like the Jets, most NFL teams, in spite of all their hoopla, are going to fail this year 30 teams are not going to reach the Super Bowl. 20 teams will not reach the playoffs. And 16 teams are going to lose more games than they win. When he was given the opportunity, Tim Tebow won more games than he lost, reached the playoffs, and won the first playoff game by breaking NFL records. Tim Tebow’s presence on the field electrifies his teammates and the fans. In that atmosphere of faith and expectancy anything can happen. Nothing is impossible, even a Super Bowl. NFL games are not won by owners, GM's like Gil Brandt and head coaches. Games are won when a leader like Tim Tebow comes along who can electrify the crowd and the whole team, including the head coach, causing them to believe they can win. But I believe there is an NFL owner and a head coach who will look at their situation realistically, and realize that Tim Tebow is by far their best option for starting quarterback who can carry the whole team and make them winners instead of losers.